Avoiding AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Damgate: Why It Occurs
If AdBlue is already in your diesel tank, stop reading for a moment: leave your engine and your ignition off then phone 0333 366 0103. In Damgate, finding it before your motor turns normally means draining and a full flush where it stands. Not happened yet? Below, the page explains the why it happens and the how to avoid it for good.
Why does AdBlue in a diesel motor need its own filler?
Plenty of newer diesels on the roads about Damgate and West Somerton carry two liquids, not one. Diesel goes to your engine. Kept in a tank of its own, AdBlue is sprayed into your exhaust stream and cleans it.
Different tanks, separate fillers. On a lot of motors the two sit side by side under the same flap; on others the AdBlue filler is in the boot or under the bonnet. The diesel side is fuelled at the pump all the time. A driver who has to stop and think where it goes usually tops up the AdBlue side, from a bottle, and far less often. It is in the gap that the slip lives.
How does AdBlue in your diesel tank occur around Damgate?
Carelessness rarely explains it. Instead is three things coming up together.
On a drive off Damgate Back Lane before work, or in the car park outside The Kings Arms on the way home: that's where the rushed top-up happens. What is the reason for the rush? As AdBlue gets low the car warns you, and once it is empty, limp mode follows.
Then the vehicle is unfamiliar. A hire car, a new motor or a company car puts the fillers where your last one didn't, and your hand gets to for the cap it would have used on the old one.
And the bottle fits. A bottle with a spout goes into a diesel filler as easily as an AdBlue one, and so nothing stops the tip once it has started. Martham or the middle of Damgate: it takes the same few seconds either way.
Which filler is for AdBlue, and which for diesel?
Before you pour anything, whether on a drive in Cess or a forecourt in Damgate, check these. They take a couple of seconds.
- The cap. The AdBlue cap is regularly blue, or marked "AdBlue". Your diesel cap normally isn't. Read it instead of going by where it sits.
- Many motors give AdBlue the smaller neck of the two.
- Lift the flap and look for a label — many vehicles mark what belongs in each inlet right there.
- The handbook. If your filler is not by your diesel cap, it's in the boot or under the bonnet, and the handbook says which.
- Check with the person who drove it last — before you leave, not when the light comes on — when you collect a hire or company car from somewhere like the car park at Acle.
Topping up AdBlue without it reaching the diesel tank
The day the light comes on, anywhere in Norfolk, follow this routine.
- Not in a rush on the side of Moregrove Lane, not on a slope, not with the engine running: park then switch off properly.
- Find the AdBlue filler and read the cap. Say "AdBlue" out loud as you unscrew it. It sounds silly and it works.
- The diesel cap stays on. Where the two share a flap, confirm it is shut before lifting the bottle.
- Tip slowly, using the bottle's own spout. Stop when it's full or when the bottle is empty.
- Before starting the vehicle, shut the cap and look a second time that your diesel cap never came off.
If at step two or three you find you have already poured into your diesel side, stop there. Step five stays off limits.
Already put AdBlue in the diesel tank in Damgate?
Do not start your engine: that's how the short order of things begins. The fuel pump runs on many diesels as soon as your ignition goes on — and so keep it off. AdBlue doesn't mix with diesel — it sinks to the bottom of your tank, where the fuel is sucked from — so don't top up with diesel to dilute it.
The attendants at the nearest petrol station, JET or another forecourt will usually lend a hand pushing the vehicle clear when you ask. Your own drive around Damgate is where it stays.
Stop as soon as it is safe and switch off, if the motor has already run. Come off the M11 — over 50 miles out of Damgate — at the first exit. Distance counts — a quick hop across Damgate is a smaller job than heading under 25 miles to Norwich — so tell us about how far it went.
Damgate: what takes place when our engineers turn up
We come to the car wherever it has stopped, whether that's outside Martham Academy and Nursery, close to Acle Scout Group or on your own drive. Both the work and the price rest on three replies — what fluid, which amount, and if it has run — so our engineers ask. Nobody heads out until you've had our quote over the phone.
Next: a drain, then a thorough flush of the entire system. Unlike petrol, AdBlue forms crystals and eats at certain fuel-system metals, and neither clears out by itself. That is why it matters more. The filter is flushed, or replaced where it needs to be; clean diesel goes in; and the vehicle is tested. Then we start the car and make sure it runs properly before leaving.
If your engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once we are there, using pumps that are fine on a working forecourt and quiet enough to use outside a house after dark. The insurer will ask for an engineer's report and your VAT invoice, and you get both at the end. Payment is on the day, with no money upfront. Many insurance policies include misfuelling cover, so it's worth checking yours while we are on the way.
About Damgate
Damgate is a small suburban area in Norfolk, situated near the coast and approximately 15 miles east of Norwich. Damgate has a low elevation of around 7 metres above sea level, and its population is predominantly housed in detached properties. Damgate is close to nearby places such as Martham and Thunder Hill, and is about 112 miles north-east of London.
AdBlue drains across Norfolk, Damgate included
Throughout NR postcodes, the teams covering Damgate — a residential suburb — work the nearby spots too, Mustard Hyrn and Thunder Hill among them. The van gets to you fastest with a postcode starting NR29 4.
Your car does not need to shift. Anywhere it sits — near Martham Village Sign, in a layby en route to Sound Plantation, at home — that's where it is drained. If you are close to a boundary, or somewhere hard to explain like the back of Saint Mary The Virgin, ring and ask rather than assuming.
Damgate motorists: the short version
Read the cap before you tip. Even so AdBlue in your diesel tank? Petrol in Diesel can drain it where it is, anywhere in Norfolk: keep the car off and call 0333 366 0103.